This archive report was first published on 23 September 2019.
Deep in the Meru region, there exists an unwritten law that has been passed down through generations in the Chuka sub-tribe. This law prohibits men from entering their mother's kitchen, a tradition that dates back to ensure they don't become 'mama's boys'.
According to Peterson Kirimi, the idea behind this restriction is to prevent boys and circumcised young men from growing up to be overly dependent on their mothers. He quotes, 'The kitchen is the playing ground of women. No self-respecting man, circumcised or not, should venture into that place.'
Once a Chuka boy gets circumcised and is considered a 'real' man, the restriction tightens further. Even loitering near the kitchen is frowned upon, and there are cases where the community shuns men who have broken this cardinal rule.
It is believed that this tradition has contributed to the macho ways of the average Chuka man. As Kirimi puts it, 'We have learnt to live with it. Even elementary school boys appreciate that nothing in his mother's kitchen belongs to them, including food.'
When the boys and men become hungry or thirsty, they are only allowed to send a female to fetch it for them. This arrangement has made Meru women, especially those from Chuka, to be rated among the better 'wife materials' according to Amos Murungi, a primary school teacher in Igembe.
However, young boys and single men in Chuka have difficulty with the law, especially on Sundays when the custodians of the kitchen are in church. Kirimi suggests that they have a choice of venturing into the farm or visiting relatives in the name of passing the pastor's Sunday greetings and blessings where they get a meal in exchange.
But, as Duncan Njeru, a businessman at Chuka, points out, the kitchen law is not cast in stone. During life-threatening emergencies, men can enter the kitchen.
